November 5 - 7, 12 - 15 & 19 - 21 at 8pm
and November 8 at 2pm

$18 General Admission; $15 Students/Seniors

available at Buskirk Chumley Box Office or online at buskirkchumley.org

$5 Student Rush Tickets available 5 minutes before showtime

Naked In The Kitchen

The Bloomington Playwrights Project proudly announces the winner of the 09/10 Season Reva Shiner National Full-Length Playwriting Contest: Naked In The Kitchen by Lynda Martens, a respectful and realistic examination of contemporary family relationships that will move and touch all audiences.

Naked In The Kitchen explores marital troubles that arise in Beth and Charlie's relationship after their only son Michael leaves home for University. Beth is determined to connect with Charlie, who has been buried in his laptop, but Charlie has a secret, and its clumsy revelation catapults them into a raw and risky marital zone they haven't entered before. Michael's return home for a visit with his friend Kevin finds his parents in this state of unprecedented turmoil, and with the premature prognosis offered by his friend, Kevin, concludes that divorce is imminent. But Michael has his own bomb to drop. The Campbell family thought they had survived the biggest trauma already. Will their love and humor be enough to carry them through this tumultuous time when family members' needs and agendas collide?

"It's kind of like that movie about the perfect storm...colliding energies," explains Martens. "You take a middle-aged couple with unresolved issues brewing under the surface, then you send their precious only son off to University, add a few secrets and an agenda, throw in two teenage boys... and stir till it explodes."

Naked in the Kitchen stars veteran Bloomington performers Jeff Stone and Meredith Mills as Charlie and Beth and newcomer Gabriel Wallace as their son, Michael. Kyle Hendricks rounds out the cast as Michael's friend Kevin.

"Startling revelations and long-held feelings are the only things bared in this totally contemporary, vibrant script filled with expertly written dialogue and wonderfully fresh doses of humor," says director Holly Holbrook. "Lynda has written a smart, sexy, and sensitive play about family, marriage, and love in the midst of change and in the mists of the peaks and valleys of cancer."

The Reva Shiner Contest is one of the few full-length play contests in the nation that awards the winner not only with a cash prize, but also a full production of the winning play. The BPP received over 150 submissions this past year, narrowing them down to ten finalists, with Naked In The Kitchen emerging as the favorite.

Lynda Martens (Playwright) is chuffed and overjoyed to be working with the Bloomington Playwrights Project as the winner of the Reva Shiner contest, 2009. An actor, director and writer for three years, Lynda is from a rural area near London, Ontario, Canada. She has written about a dozen short plays, most of which have been produced. Naked in the Kitchen was her first short play, and it won accolades across Canada before it was developed into her first full-length script. Lynda is eternally grateful to all those who assisted with development along the way. Lynda is also a couple and family therapist and she thanks her husband Jerry and three grown children for their fodder for creativity and patience with her preoccupation for the craft of theatre. Her hope is that you will see yourselves and your lives reflected in these ordinary and completely extraordinary characters.